Page 45 - Employee Handbook

individual must hold this relationship at the time the child is placed for
adoption).
d) Qualifying Week: in relation to the birth of a child, the fifteenth week before
the EWC. In relation to the adoption of a child, the week the adoption agency
notifies you that you have been matched with a child for adoption.
What Is Shared Parental Leave?
Shared parental leave (SPL) is a form of leave that may be available if your child
is expected to be born, or where an adoption agency places a child with you
and/or your Partner, on or after 5 April 2015.
It gives you and your Partner more flexibility in how to share the care of your
child in the first year after birth or adoption than simply taking maternity,
paternity or adoption leave. Assuming you are both eligible, you will be able to
choose how to split the available leave between you, and can decide to be off
work at the same time or at different times. You may be able to take leave in
more than one block.
Entitlement to SPL
Birth conditions
You are entitled to SPL in relation to the birth of a child if:

a) you are the child’s mother, and share the main responsibility for the care
of the child with the child’s father (or your Partner, if the father is not your
Partner);
b) you are the child’s father and share the main responsibility for the care of the
child with the child’s mother; or
c) you are the mother’s Partner and share the main responsibility for the care of
the child with the mother (where the child’s father does not share the main
responsibility with the mother).
If you are the mother you cannot start SPL until after the compulsory maternity
leave period, which lasts until two weeks after birth.
If you are the child’s father or the mother’s Partner, you should consider using
your two weeks’ paternity leave before taking SPL. Once you start SPL you will
lose any untaken paternity leave entitlement. SPL entitlement is additional to
your paternity leave entitlement.
The total amount of SPL available is 52 weeks, less the weeks spent by the
child’s mother on maternity leave (or the weeks in which the mother has been
in receipt of SMP or MA if she is not entitled to maternity leave).
Adoption conditions
You may be entitled to SPL if an adoption agency has placed a child with

45 Employee Handbook